Do you remember back in December when I described the cheap Chinese mechanical watch I bought on eBay? At the time, I had expected that it would last six months before crapping out, but it turns out that I was being overly optimistic. The M. G. Orkina brand mechanical watch died this week. I went to wind it, and the winding stem fell off, followed by several small gears that disengaged from the movement, stopping the watch. The watch lasted just about eight weeks. It was a learning experience. Apparently it is possible to make crap that is so cheap that it fails to meet even my lowest expectations.

​While I am waiting to find a better watch for everyday wear, I bought this $11 Chinese number on eBay. This time, though, it has a Japanese quartz movement, so it should last the life of the battery. It’s a heavy and quite solid watch. The downside, however, is that while it looks beautiful and I like it very much, the “stainless steel” case and bracelet are almost certainly thinly plated base metal and will probably wear out in a few months.

​I really like the watch overall, so I’ve been looking around to see if there is a decent quality watch of similar appearance, but all of the name brand ones I’ve come across have had quite ugly dials until you get into the $500+ range, which is just ridiculous.

So, I’ll ask all of you: Do you know of a decent watch of similar appearance that won’t break the bank and will last for a few years or more? I’m not unwilling to pay for quality, but I’m not going to spend more on a watch than my smartphone.

The Comet That Wasn’t?Today I have two small but interesting things to discuss. First, I learned today that new research is casting even more doubt on Graham Hancock’s contention that a lost civilization succumbed to the destructive power of a cosmic impact during the Younger Dryas.

Dr. Tyrone Daulton of Washington University in St. Louis attempted to restudy areas where the advocates of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis alleged that nanodiamonds had been found. According to the original researchers, particularly Douglas Kennett, these diamonds were thought to have formed as the result of the impact of a massive comet and could be found in many locations around the world. Daulton reexamined these areas, and he found no diamonds at all. Daulton and his team actually located the exact same outcroppings where Kennett had reported the discovery of nanodiamonds. After careful analysis, the results were surprising: ““Despite my efforts, I was unable to locate any diamonds,” he told Western Digs. Daulton said that he things the original researchers mistook small copper spheres for nanodiamonds because of their similar refraction patterns.

Retesting samples from other sites where nanodiamonds were allegedly found returned similar results, namely that the diamonds weren’t there.

Daulton’s research article, which is available for free from the Journal of Quaternary Science, was published online in December and in print in the January edition.

“We are talking about a sample with the greatest reported concentration of nanodiamonds of all Younger Dryas Boundary sites,” Daulton said. “If that measurement cannot be reproduced, it draws into serious question the abundance measurements performed at all other Younger Dryas Boundary sites.”

While it goes without saying that no one study can be conclusive, if confirmed, this is pretty damning evidence against the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, not to mention Graham Hancock’s use of it to fantasize about the fate of Atlantis.

It probably goes without saying that Graham Hancock has not responded to the new evidence, but he did find time between December and now to promoted Magicians of the Gods repeatedly and to tweet about how cosmic impacts are “the hidden hand in human history.”

Lovecraft Among the Alt-RightI also learned today that when I referred to so-called “alt-right” intellectual Jason Reza Jorjani’s book Prometheus and Atlas as a funhouse mirror version of my own work on the connections between fringe history, pseudoscience, speculative fiction, and racist and colonialist ideology, I was more correct than even I would have guessed. A regular reader directed me to an item on the website of Jorjani’s publishing house, Arktos, which he runs as editor-in-chief of the company’s American operations. Would it surprise you to learn that Jorjani published H. P. Lovecraft, or rather, just his racist stuff?

Arktos media publishes a collected edition of Lovecraft’s amateur journalism from the years that he self-published The Conservative, a sort of proto-blog amateur newspaper. The newspaper had previously been published by Necronomicon Press in both unabridged (1976, 1977) and selected (1990) editions. The thirteen issues, which contain a mix of Lovecraft’s writings and those of his friends, included much of his most racist and rightwing nonsense. The introduction to the Arktos edition blandly states that “Lovecraft’s racialism followed logically from his hierarchical view of life.” The introduction also praises Lovecraft’s views as “internally consistent and well-grounded.” Read into that what you choose, but note that the author, self-described advocate of “elitism” Alex Kurtagic, praises The Conservative as the only publication to have truly earned its title. Kurtagic once wrote a book of rightwing essays titled (in German) “Africa Must Go to Hell.” As a music publisher under the name Supernal Music, he released album covers featuring—and I am not making this up—Nazis, Neo-Nazis, and Esoteric Hitlerist and ancient astronaut theorist Miguel Serrano. The musicians he published were criticized for fascist lyrics.

I bring this up because it is yet another example of how Lovecraft’s shadow hangs over the various flavors of fringe history, a story I’ve been following since I first reported on it in 2004, and one that even purveyors of fringe history now take as a given. Here, the author’s explicit racism and his reactionary politics (at least up to the last decade of his life) are considered a feature and not a bug. Nevertheless, his close connection to ancient mysteries, ancient astronaut theories, and the other detritus of Theosophy and fringe history seems to make him into a siren song that cannot be resisted.

That's the thing, Only Me: I'd never pay $500 for a watch to just wear around doing errands and getting it banged up. That's just silly. If a $10 watch lasted six months, that would be fine. A year, and I'd be thrilled.

The movement is a cheap Japanese one, so it's probably good for 2-3 years. The question is the quality of the bracelet. It feels solid, but I figure the plating will begin to wear in 3-6 months. The pins, though, are awfully cheap, and I wonder if one will give way sooner than that.

Kathleen

2/16/2017 02:16:49 pm

I'll split the difference and say 9 months.

PostModernPrimate

2/16/2017 12:03:05 pm

You might want to check out Stuhrling Original watches. They are solid quality for the price and should have something to your taste in their catalogue. I believe you can get them on Amazon.

I'm not expecting a Rolex! I'd just like something that won't fall apart on my wrist but looks a bit better than a plastic Walmart watch. These watches prove that they COULD make watches that look nice at a medium level of quality (3-5 year lifespan, say), but they choose to only make really cheap or really expensive ones. That's the crappy part of capitalism: the stuff either has to break down so you buy more or cost so much they don't care if you buy more.

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Titus pullo

2/16/2017 06:33:07 pm

Mechanical watches are by nature more ecpensive if u want decent wuality. Dont blame capitalism. The market is pretty efficent in these things. U might have tp pony up 200 range for a watch that lasts a few years. Its about the customer experience and maybe u are simply not an economically viable segment. 😀

I think you're overly optimistic, and that we're talking at a bit of cross-purposes. Compare the same brand's watches across price ranges. The best looking watches are the most expensive. That's not because they CAN'T make nice looking watches at the mid-range prices but because they want to encourage buyers to buy more than they can afford to get a better looking product.

Kathleen

2/16/2017 12:58:25 pm

Can any of our geologist/earth science folk tell us about copper nanospheres and what their presence signifies?

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V

2/16/2017 09:37:23 pm

Nanospheres are only formed by forging and industrial activity, as far as I can find. Jason's quote says "small copper spheres," though, which is a little different, and my father, who has a geology degree, says THOSE are associated with high-temperature activity such as volcanic activity, etc. that's relatively near the surface. Fairly common and decidedly terrestrial. ("the original researchers mistook small copper spheres for nanodiamonds")

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Kathleen

2/16/2017 09:52:21 pm

Thanks V

An Over-Educated Grunt

2/17/2017 09:19:04 am

Keep in mind that the presence of small copper spheres doesn't rule out some sort of impact, since the best way to produce small copper spheres is to heat and disperse copper particles as a vapor or liquid depending on particle size, then cool them rapidly back down to solid temperatures. A metal-bodied meteor could still produce that result, though there would be other telltale signs of impact as well.

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V

2/17/2017 12:04:05 pm

Yeah, but the point is that an eruption could easily produce the same type of spheres, and commonly does, in fact. It's not the kind of telltale sign that iridium spheres, nanodiamonds, or impact glass would be. In the absence of further evidence than just the spheres, one should probably assume terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial origins.

Tom

2/16/2017 01:54:28 pm

I am still puzzled as to whether Mr Hancock and his ilk need the cosmic impact to prove the destruction of Atlantis or the existence and destruction of Atlantis to prove a cosmic impact.
As for the Younger Dryas, why is a special catastrophe required to occur in a period of Earths history not yet fully understood?
Mr Hancok appears to be taking up the mantle of Baron Cuvier and arranging catastrophes as he thinks necessary.
In this light,perhaps he would give close attention to the apparent and mysterious disappearance of tittlebats from the Hampstead Ponds?

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Bill Birkeland

2/22/2017 10:17:34 pm

Tom wrote,

"Mr Hancock appears to be taking up the mantle of Baron
Cuvier and arranging catastrophes as he thinks necessary."

Mr. Hancock is doing this in case of Meltwater pulse 1A. He incorrectlyly claims that it contemporaneous with the start of the Younger Dryas at 12,900 calender years BP. In fact, the period of Meltwater pulse 1A is between 13,500 and 14,700 calendar years BP with its peak at about 13,800 calendar years BP. Therefore, it is much too old to be associated with an alleged cosmic impact and a sudden and catastrophic melting of the ice sheets at 12,900 calender years BP. Also, there is nothing really special about Meltwater pulse 1A. Also, it is only one of several known postglacial meltwater pulses, e.g. meltwater pulse 1A0 (meltwater pulse 19ka), meltwater pulse 1B, meltwater pulse 1C, meltwater pulse 1D, and meltwater pulse 2. Meltwater pulses are, thus, far too common to be regarded as being unique to extraterrestrial impacts. Finally, the sea level "fingerprint" of Meltwater pulse 1A indicate that the meltwater came largely from Antarctica instead of North America. It appears that Graham Hancock and his supporters are very sloppy researchers that depend more on wishful thinking instead of learning the facts.

Believe it or not, I have one of those that belonged to my father. I runs, too.

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Bob Jase

2/16/2017 04:45:28 pm

Is this to trick me into a paternity test?

BigFred

2/16/2017 08:55:49 pm

I have one of those too. I think I received it around that same year. I guess they're not as rare as I thought.

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David Bradbury

2/16/2017 03:23:19 pm

This one could run and run ....
Back in 2014, it was claimed that techniques like transmission electron microscopy had specifically ruled out the possibility that the "nanodiamonds" could be copper (or a non-diamond form of carbon such as graphene).

I have a 25 year old Swiss Army watch that still looks good and runs well. My dress watch is a Citizen. It's powered by light, and after five years the gold finish still looks good and hasn't turned my wrist green :p . Neither was more than $200, and I imagine both companies have a variety of styles.

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BigNick

2/16/2017 05:15:01 pm

Citizens are great. I never buy cheap watches (that's more step 1 than bragging) but I can pull any one of them out any time and know they run. Stainless steel cases and bracelets all still in good shape. Never go brushed chrome no matter what brand.

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Crash55

2/16/2017 06:58:01 pm

The battery / capacitor in my Citizen Eco-drive died. I had it for over five years at that time. I really need to send it in for repairs but keep getting side tracked.

Before it died I started I have been using cheap Walmart watches for everyday as I tend to be rough on them. I can't seem to kill the current one - I even reached into a bath of acetone with it on and it still works

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Killbuck

2/16/2017 09:48:35 pm

I am a pocket watch on a chain in a vest pocket type and am completely ill equipped to render any meaningful suggestions.

Years ago, when the impactites were first found in the soil samples, I tried to obtain some for sale via the meteorite list. I received a lecture on how difficult and expensive it was to extract them.

Unfortunately, we get people like Daulton and Hancock showing up all of the time.

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Denise

2/19/2017 01:47:50 pm

Hey Jason,

You probably could keep the finish of of your watch stable longer if you clear coat it once in awhile (spray can of car clear coat finish). Here is Georgia I have extreme sulfur content in my water. the fumes literally turn all my brass black and silver tarnishes like crazy. I have started clear coating my brass (especially since I am dabbling in steampunk for fun), and any metal that's not gold.

It may help you keep your watch going longer. Can't help you with the pins though.

On another note, is your "Lovecraft and the Cult of the Alien Gods still available in hardback? I was thinking of buying for a present for a friend. Of course if I do so I am going want an autograph from you if possible.... (hmmm maybe I need two? Can't get an autograph for my personal Kindle copy. :) .

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.